Polk Foundation Grant

The Polk Foundation Grant supports initiatives that enhance the quality of life for individuals with disabilities in southwestern Pennsylvania. Established by Patricia Hillman Miller, the Foundation prioritizes programs focusing on health, human services, and community inclusion. It seeks to empower people with disabilities through collaborative efforts, innovative technology, and impactful research. While Merakey AVS remains a primary beneficiary, the Foundation welcomes applications from other nonprofits aligned with its mission, ensuring accessibility and support for diverse needs.

About the Polk Foundation
The Polk Foundation believes that every person with a disability deserves to live with dignity and have maximum opportunity to grow, achieve, and succeed.
Honoring Patricia Hillman Miller's lifelong commitment to this principle, the Foundation will continue to focus primarily on improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.
Patricia Hillman Miller created the Polk Foundation to ensure that high-quality care and programs were available to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families in southwestern Pennsylvania, at a time when many children with developmental and intellectual disabilities lived in poverty with limited services.
She was instrumental in the successful opening of the Allegheny Valley School for Exceptional Children in 1961. The Polk Foundation’s close relationship with AVS, now Merakey AVS, continues. Although Merakey AVS is the principal beneficiary of the Polk Foundation, the Foundation accepts inquiries from other nonprofit organizations that provide services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, and makes grants on a limited basis as funding is available.
Strategic Priorities
The Polk Foundation prioritizes investments that promote the economic, social, and emotional welfare of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities and increase the opportunities available to them.
In particular, the Foundation focuses on:

• Programs designed in partnership with people with disabilities and their families
• Technology initiatives that enable maximum independence
• Relevant research with high potential for quick translation to clinical care and quality of life improvements
• Community initiatives that aim to make neighborhoods more welcoming and inclusive of those with developmental and intellectual disabilities
• Capital improvements (on a limited basis)

Eligibility

Applicant organizations must be classified as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code and as public charities under Section 509(a) of that code.
The Foundation's geographic focus is the ten counties in southwestern Pennsylvania: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland.

Ineligibility

The foundation does not make a lot of multi-year grants, but does consider them.Activities for which the Polk Foundation does not encourage requests:Organizations based outside of the United StatesSupport for organizations that are not a 501(c)(3) or government agency, and therefore require a fiscal sponsorship, unless the sponsorship is a temporary situation and/or the sponsorship arrangement meets rigorous criteria for oversight and supportDirect support for individualsDocumentary and film projectsConference, event, or training sponsorshipsEndowment contributionsDebt reductionAnnual appeals